The North Dakota Senate today passed a bill to create an “outdoor heritage” fund. As amended, the bill puts a portion of oil tax revenues (capped at $15 million per year and $30 million per biennium) into a fund managed by the State Industrial Board with advice from a board of appointees from various special…

The system for governing North Dakota’s university system is fundamentally flawed, and the controversy over Chancellor Hamid Shirvani proves it. Whatever you may think of Shirvani, it’s become very clear that anyone in his position intent on actually governing the universities rather than acting as a sort of rubber stamp for what the university presidents…

In response to Governor Jack Dalrymple’s State of the State speech today (posts about that here and here), North Dakota Democrats have released their own list of priorities. For the most part, they’re really not all that different from Governor Dalrymple’s priorities, though they do a good job getting some nice, partisan jabs in for…

Taking a look at Governor Dalrymple’s proposed budgets for the various executive office holders reveals big pay increases. Dalrymple intends for these statewide elected officials to each reap an 11.4% pay increase from 2012 to 2015. Here’s the specific dollar amounts for each office (you can read the actual bills here, look at HB1001 –…